Popular Protest Against Hungarian Symbols in Croatia (1883-1903): A Study in Visual History

Abstract

The article investigates the visual dimension of popular protests in Habsburg Croatia at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, reconstructing the history of a precise pattern of popular protest, i.e. anti-Hungarian unrests. Furthermore, the article explores the relationships that peasant masses established with some key national symbols, namely the Hungarian and Croatian flag, showing the multiple and contested meaning assigned to them by the members of the elite and the peasants. Second, the article shows how popular reception of these visual symbols changed during the examined period. The main issues addressed are therefore the mass nationalization and politicization of rural population in these regions, raising some general questions related to the symbolic language of social conflict.